FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CHRISTMAS DINNER - PAGE 5

WILLIAMSPORT -- Friends and strangers gathered to share a free Christmas meal Friday at Rehoboth United Methodist Church in Williamsport. Neighbors James Barger and Diana LeVasseur said they drove from Hagerstown for the meal, which included turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, stuffing and pumpkin pie. Barger said this Christmas was a little sadder than usual because his mother died in July. "It's my first Christmas without her," Barger said. "It's lonely without my mom. " LeVasseur said the Christmas dinner provided people with a place to enjoy fellowship.

HANCOCK -- Hancock United Methodist Church morphed into a nativity scene during Breakfast in Bethlehem on Thursday as angels, shepherds and wise men gathered to serve pancakes and sausage links to hungry worshippers. Shannon McKinley, one of the event's organizers, said the breakfast was held to celebrate the birth of Christ. "The goal is to share God's word, and have everyone realize that the greatest gift was his child and not the presents wrapped under the Christmas tree," McKinley said.

andrews@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Six or seven hundred Christmas dinner guests would be a swarm almost anywhere in Washington County. Not at the Four Points Sheraton on Dual Highway, where it was considered a smaller-than-usual crowd on Wednesday. After preparing a free turkey and ham Christmas dinner for the needy for 17 years, Nick Giannaris has come to expect 1,000 to 1,500 diners. But this year, a storm that plopped up to 5 inches of snow on the Hagerstown area kept many people away.

Editor's note: This is one in a series of stories running on the 12 days before Christmas to recognize people who make the holidays better for others. pepperb@herald-mail.com Ask children what they want for Christmas and they'll list the works, but ask children what they can do for Christmas and they'll show you how it works. That's what Williamsport Elementary School teacher Stephanie Bard discovered when she asked the school's 75 fifth-graders to donate food, gifts and money to a family in need.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - What everyone had for Christmas dinner was obvious during Saturday's Martinsburg-Jefferson girls semifinal at the Blue Ridge Bank Holiday Shootout Saturday at Shepherd College. The No. 6 Bulldogs got all the chocolate, and used their sugar high to take a big halftime lead and hold off the Cougars after they awakened from their postmeal nap, 64-45. Martinsburg will face No. 10 Hedgesville in the girls final Monday at 7. The Eagles defeated Musselman, 25-22.

Hagerstown resident Amy Rhodes was grateful to get a free box of food from the Williamsport Improved Order of Red Men on Wednesday. She said the contents, which included a turkey, gravy, potatoes and pumpkin pie, would allow her to make Christmas dinner for her family. "I think that it's nice that they're helping people," Rhodes said. "These are hard times for everyone right now. " Rhodes was one of 125 people who came to the Red Men's club at 16129 Lappans Road from 10 a.m. to noon to receive a box of food.

Editor's Note: In this 12-part series that runs through Christmas Eve, The Herald-Mail highlights people and organizations who make the holidays brighter for others. Name: Daniel W. Moylan Age: 72 Home: Hagerstown Occupation: Retired judge/mediation and arbitration services What do you do to make Christmas brighter?: Moylan buys fresh turkeys and donates them to the Hagerstown Rescue Mission for Christmas dinner. "This year, the cook tells me he will need 75 pounds of turkey.

SPRING MILLS, W.Va. --Â Plumber Tom Newcomb became Lillian Maggio's "Christmas angel" after the tank of her hot-water heater sprung a leak. The 78-year-old Spring Mills woman, who is recovering from hip surgery, said Newcomb not only answered her emergency call for help on Christmas Day, but made the repairs for free that day. "I don't mean to cry, but he was so wonderful," Maggio said tearfully. "I'm still in shock. " After talking with her and realizing her financial limitations, Newcomb said, "I felt in my heart that it was the right thing to do. " Maggio said the emergency holiday call for service to Newcomb's A Plus Plumbing business in Martinsburg, W.Va.

trishr@herald-mail.com BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. - Two local families will get some help with Christmas this year from the Berkeley Springs High School Student Council. Phil Unger, the student council adviser, said the council spends part of its fundraising money on families in the community that do not have enough money to buy Christmas presents for their children. Unger, who said the council has been doing so for about 10 years, said he worked with a local agency that recommended the families.

HAGERSTOWN - Longtime local philanthropist Nicholas Giannaris sold Four Points By Sheraton Hagerstown to Watchwood LLC for $7.4 million this month, according to documents from the Donohoe Hotel Advisory Group/Corfac International, the firm that brokered the deal. Giannaris, known by some as "Saint Nicholas," was president and owner of the hotel, where he hosted "Christmas with Nick" for 17 years. He ended the annual holiday dinner after the 2002 event because of his failing health due to Parkinson's disease.